How to See – and Manifest – Your Future.

I never thought I'd become a professional blimp operator, but there I was.

This was not just a fancy weather balloon, though: This was a $175 million state-of-the-art military surveillance system called a JLENS. With my blimp, I could watch a rat cross the road in crystal clear thermal vision from 10 miles away. Or spot someone putting explosives in the one paved road in our territory near the Syrian border before we found them the hard way.

Despite all of its fancy tech, however, the JLENS needed someone to climb 30 feet up a sketchy ladder to tie it down during storms.

One night, I found myself violently swinging back and forth at the top of a precarious tower in 50 mph winds trying to secure this 40-foot-long blimp.

That's when I had a flashback to a past life - or something like that. I realized there was little difference between me swinging on that tower with no safety harness and sailors tying down the sails on a wooden battleship 400 years ago. For all the fancy technology, and despite being in a barren desert instead of on the high seas, I was fighting the wind to tie something down with a sobering chance of falling to my death.

So, here's my point: History repeats itself. It always has, and it always will. Anyone who thinks that something new is happening next week or next year hasn't read enough books.

You want to be the one who has all the answers because you've already seen the test.

The leaders who read the most win.

Ok, so you're going to start to read more. What should you read, though?

Here's my suggestion: Read stories about the people who have been there and done that.

That's right. Biographies.

Maybe history isn't your thing, but there's something eye-opening about seeing exactly how someone penniless, canceled, over the hill - you name it - slingshotted past their failures and misfortunes into the pantheon of world-changers.

Sure, you could just read Steve Jobs' bio if you want to be a tech giant, or Freddie Mercury's story if you want to be a rock legend, but it helps to study the mindset and the character of success from a different perspective. After all, it wasn't the computers or the microphones that made Steve and Freddie icons: It was their indomitable spirits and their ability to visualize what was possible. If you read one of the books below, you'll begin to better understand the universal principles of success regardless of what century or industry you're in.

Here are 3 biographies that truly changed my life:

Listen to Team of Rivals about Abraham Lincoln (41-hours). It's easily one of the greatest books on leadership and political science ever written.

Read Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up From Slavery (6 hours) and get a deeper apolitical understanding of American history and how to truly change the direction of your life.

Read Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts (33 hours) to learn what it truly means to visualize and manifest greatness - and what going too far might cost you.

The Raytheon JLENS blimp.

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